Climate scientists say we need to reduce global emissions by about 4 percent a year, going to zero emissions, or even negative emissions, before the end of the century. But emissions-free technologies like wind, solar and nuclear may not be able to address the problem quickly enough.

In developing economies, the demand for cheap and reliable electricity from fossil fuels continues to grow, generating even more greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. But from an environmental standpoint, not all fossil fuels are created equal.

Natural gas

Natural gas is primarily methane. When burnt, methane emits about half as much CO2 as a coal. In the last 10 years, the United States has seen a boom in the production of low-cost natural gas, which many electrical utilities are adopting as a cleaner alternative to coal.

Fossil fuels

But one drawback of natural gas is the leakage of uncombusted methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Stanford faculty members Rob Jackson and Adam Brandt in the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences have been identifying the wells and pipes where those leaks are most likely to occur so that industry can prevent them. They’ve found that a small number of wells produce most of the leaked methane.

To better understand the benefits and risks of increasing natural gas production, the Precourt Institute and the School of Earth created the Natural Gas Initiative (NGI), a campus-wide research program launched in 2015.

One key area of NGI research focuses on unconventional gas reservoirs and how they can be better managed to increase the gas-recovery rate, now well below 20 percent, said NGI Director Mark Zoback. By increasing recovery, gas production can be maintained with fewer land-use impacts, he added.

Carbon capture and sequestration

Beyond switching from coal to natural gas, another approach for reducing emissions from fossil fuels is to capture the carbon dioxide and store it underground in deep geological formations, a technique known as carbon capture and sequestration.

Advances in clean fossil fuels

As the world continues to burn 100 million barrels of oil a day – a rate that is expected to continue for the next 50 years – Stanford Earth researchers are developing greener ways of extracting the oil and mitigating the resulting greenhouse gases.

The land under our feet and the plant matter it contains could offset a significant amount of carbon emissions if managed properly. More research is needed to unlock soil’s potential to mitigate global warming, improve crop yields and increase resilience to extreme weather.

New research finds far more abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania than previously thought and provides a framework for identifying wells across the United States and globally that are the worst methane leakers.

A new study finds that just a few natural gas wells account for more than half of the total volume of leaked methane gas in the United States. Fixing leaks at those top emitters could significantly reduce leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

As the world shifts from fossil fuels, additional sources of energy-on-demand will be needed to make up for lulls in wind or solar. A new way of extracting uranium from seawater could help even countries without uranium mines harness nuclear power in the post-carbon energy future.

Taking a cue from plants, researchers figure out how to use the sun's energy to combine CO2 with H2O to create benign chemical products, as part of a futuristic technology called artificial photosynthesis.

A year after Konrad Reuland’s far-too-early passing, the former Stanford tight end continues to live on in the heartbeat of a fellow athlete, the memories of his family and friends, and in the indomitable spirit of a young girl.